Birmingham's Selly Oak Hospital was at the centre of a major row in the House of Commons when Tony Blair defended the treatment of injured military personnel.

He accused Conservatives of attacking the NHS and its staff, after they complained that injured soldiers were housed with civilians in mixed wards.

Mr Blair also quoted a hospital statement claiming the complaints were "inaccurate, unbalanced, ill-informed and unsubstantiated".

The bad tempered exchange came when a Tory MP claimed the use of the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, in Selly Oak, "isn't working".

The Centre, run by University Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust and the Ministry of Defence, uses the trust's sites in Selly Oak and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham - where armed forces personnel injured in Afghanistan or Iraq are mixed with other patients.

Conservative shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox revealed last month that he had been contacted by a wounded member of the Parachute Regiment who had faced a verbal assault from a civilian as he was recovering.

The use of mixed wards was also strongly criticised by General Sir Richard Dannatt, the Head of the British Army.

Speaking during questions to the Prime Minister, Conservative MP Peter Viggers said injured personnel should be treated instead at a military hospital in his constituency of Gosport, Hampshire.

He said: "When other nations expose their servicemen and women to injury they are given the best possible medical treatment - often in military hospitals, whereas ours are handed over to the NHS.

"Do you recognise that the move of Defence Medical Services to Birmingham isn't working and won't work?

"And will you yield to overwhelming pressure that the only military hospital we have, Haslar Hospital in Gosport, should be retained?"

But Mr Blair responded angrily, saying: "It is important our soldiers are looked after to the best possible extent.

"They should be in an environment in which they feel comfortable but I think it would be quite wrong for people to criticise the NHS, because I know they are doing their best."